Cooking dish ideas!

[Excitedannie]

My daughter needs a recipe for her GCSE cooking exam - it needs to have some decent skills in there and ideally be a dessert from another country. She's been practicing with lemon meringue pie but it's proving tricky in the timeframe of 1 hour 30 mins.

I'm utterly useless in the kitchen so I'd appreciate your suggestions!

What about a tarte tatin? (I've no idea how to spell it!)

It looks fancy and uses different techniques.

This says it takes 50 mins but is probably an hour and a half for us mortals!
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit/the-world-famous-tarte-tatin/

Ah, she may not be allowed to take ready made puff pastry in, though 😬

You could probably find other recipes for the same thing from scratch.

Good shout but yes, she wouldn't be able to take in ready made pastry!

have a look through previous bakeoff episodes on C4 for ideas!

First thought was profiteroles, but what about Chocolate eclairs?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pauls_chocolate_clairs_59944

Clafoutis, pastel de nata, rum baba, savarin?

Other ideas:
Umm Ali. An Egyptian dessert. It does use puff or filo pastry, so not sure if she'd need to make that from scratch too? https://www.hungrypaprikas.com/umm-ali/

Churros https://www.recipetineats.com/spanish-churros-recipe/

Australian lamingtons https://www.recipetineats.com/classic-lamingtons/

I'm getting hungry seeing all these yummy dessert suggestions now 😋

Thank you - some great ideas!!

We've already tried eclairs - catastrophic fail!!!!!

My daughter recently had to make 3 courses - she made a chicken korma -

Technical ability demonstrated by jointing the chicken, making own curry paste and own nan breads.

Sounds hard but they were taught chicken jointing at school, I used a Jamie Oliver curry paste recipe on line and edited it to make the actual curry from the paste by adding a tin of tomato's, frying onion and some coconut milk, spoon of mango chutney and salt and pepper. Delish

Nans were the 2 ingredient ones - mix equal quantity of self raising flour and natural yogurt- knead a little then roll out and fry for around 2 mins each side.

Garnished with fresh coriander and a dollop of yogurt served in one of those metal dishes you get in a curry house

Dessert and made from France - individual fruit glazed French tarts - technical skill is pastry and made custard, glazed with warm apricot jam, garnished with a sprig of mint and a fanned strawberry with icing sugar.

We practiced the curry about 3 times 🙈🤣!

And got a 9 in her practical though!

Non alcoholic tiramisu. All assembly, no baking, fail safe. Only downside it tastes better the next day.

Sutlac is a Turkish rice pudding which might be possible. Or have a look at other Middle Eastern /Turkish/ Persian dishes.
There are lots of Indian dessert ideas as well with fantastic spices ... tumeric and cardamom being favourites.

Mississippi mud pie?

I would avoid short crust pastry as it's so volatile. I'm an experienced cook and avoid it where possible.

If she likes the tart tatan then a rough puff might be possible in the time.

She could do Italian or swiss meringue and toast the top with a torch.

Pavlova with lemon curd, cream and raspberries over the top

Baked, set custard/creme caramel

Steamed sponge pudding with homemade custard.

Chocolate mousse

Pannacotta with fruit coulis

I'd suggest a Bakewell tart, though I'd call it Tarte au Frangipane.
Much more forgiving than lemon meringue tart.

The pastry case and the filling are baked together in one go, so not the same time pressure as lemon meringue tart, with its several stages.
Use apricot or raspberry jam rather than fruit.
Shows a variety of skills, shortcrust pastry making, sponge type filling.

Also if time allows it could be decorated with runny glacé icing drizzled neatly across it in a zigzag pattern, or if time is short, sieved icing sugar dredged over.
Look for an easy Bakewell Tart recipe in something like the BERO cookery book, or Delia's recipes. If you don't already have one, you can send off for a BERO book, they're not expensive.

What about Turkish baklava?

I can suggest a few Indian recipes

Carrot halwa (pudding made up of carrots, milk, heavy cream and sugar and garnished with nuts) - it's the season

Atta halwa / Besan halwa (pudding made of wheat flour / gram flour)

Gulab jamun

Ras malai

Cashew / Almond/ Pista / Coconut Barfi

Mixed nut doda

Kheer (with either vermicelli or rice)

Rabadi

It's endless in India ..... no wonder Indians are diabetic 😅

I can give recipes or you can Google them.

Tiramisu meringue roulade recipe | Good Food
Super easy
looks posh
Have made it with a 12 year old

Thank you all - we are working our way through your replies!